Monsoon likely to reach Kerala early next week
Orange alert in 12 districts of Kerala, rains wreak havoc in Karnataka
NEW DELHI: After an early arrival over Andaman & Nicobar Islands, south-west monsoon is racing towards the mainland with the weather office forecasting onset over Kerala by the middle of next week.
Conditions will continue to be favourable for further progress leading to onset of Southwest Monsoon over Kerala towards end of the week, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday evening.
If the onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala happens this weekend, it will be the earliest onset in recent years. Monsoon had reached Kerala on May 23 in 2009.
Earlier, the weather office had forecast the onset of monsoon over Kerala by May 27, five days ahead of the normal onset date of June 1.
Due to strong westerly flow from Arabian Sea and trough over south Peninsula India, light/moderate fairly widespread to widespread rainfall activity likely over southwest Peninsular India and isolated to scattered rainfall over rest peninsular India, the weather office said.
It said isolated heavy rainfall is also likely over Kerala, Coastal & South Interior Karnataka during many days of the week.
Several parts of Kerala, Mahe, adjoining Karnataka and Lakshadweep have received fairly widespread to widespread rainfall/thunderstorm activity for four to five days during the week.
Heavy downpour continued to wreak havoc in various parts of Karnataka including Bengaluru for the third day leading to declaration of holiday for schools in some regions.
Normal life was thrown out of gear in several parts of the State since Tuesday with the pounding rains. There was waterlogging in many parts of Bengaluru. Several roads in the city were damaged. The city witnessed traffic snarls at many places.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai undertook a city tour for the second day in a row to inspect the rain-related damages.
Many dams including the Krishnaraja Sagar, Kabini, Harangi, Hemavathi, Almatti, Narayanapura, Bhadra, Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha and Malaprabha were inching towards filling to the brim due to the heavy rains.
Meanwhile, IMD on Thursday issued an Orange alert in 12 districts of Kerala for the day as the state continued to receive heavy rainfall. The IMD issued an Orange alert in all the districts of Kerala except for Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam for Thursday. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority said cyclonic circulation over northern Tamil Nadu and adjoining areas would lead to isolated very heavy rainfall in several parts of the southern state.
Food grain and fuel supplies to Mizoram have been hit due to flood and landslides in Assam and Meghalaya.
However, they said there is nothing to worry about as the Mizoram government was making all-out efforts to bring in supplies from other states. Landslides in different locations in Assam's Dima Hasao district disrupted road as well as rail connectivity. Landslides in multiple locations of Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district also cut off road communication to Barak Valley and Mizoram.
After a brief respite, temperatures shot up across north-west India on Thursday with Barmer reporting 47.1 degrees Celsius, the highest maximum temperature in the country.
At least 16 cities reported highest maximum temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius or more. A western disturbance over Afghanistan is expected to move slowly towards north Pakistan on Friday and east-northeastwards across the western Himalayan region, bringing rains to Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand over the weekend.
Isolated to scattered light rainfall with thunderstorm/lightning/gusty winds very likely over Punjab, Haryana, North Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh during May 20 to 24 with scattered to fairly widespread light rainfall over the region on May 23, the weather office said.